The association between altered lipid profile and suicide attempt among Tunisian patients with schizophrenia.

Ahmed Mhallah,Rym Mensi,Walid Haj Salah,Lotfi Gaha,Mohamed Fadhel Najjar,Wahiba Douki,Amal Messaoud,Islem Azizi

doi:10.1186/s12991-016-0123-1

Abstract

BackgroundThere have been many studies on psychiatric disorders, but very little is known about the biology of suicide with schizophrenia. In the present study, we are looking for a possible connection between altered lipid profile and suicidal behavior in schizophrenic Tunisian patients.MethodsAssay of total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), and triglycerides (TG) has been done for 126 schizophrenic patients with and without suicide attempts and 131 healthy controls recruited in the University Hospital of Monastir.ResultsTC and LDL-c levels were significantly higher in schizophrenic patients compared to controls. TC was significantly lower in schizophrenic patients with suicide attempt compared to those without suicide attempt. Depending to the sonority of suicide attempt, TC was significantly lower in patients with recent suicide attempt compared to those with lifetime suicide attempt and without suicide attempt (p < 0.001), and no significant differences between TG, LDL-c, and HDL-c were noted.ConclusionsResults of this study showed that TC levels in schizophrenic patients after a recent suicide attempt are significantly lower than in patients without suicide attempt and with lifetime suicide attempts. TC can be one of biological markers defined suicidal risk for schizophrenic patients.

Highlights

There have been many studies on psychiatric disorders, but very little is known about the biology of suicide with schizophrenia
A total of 126 subjects with schizophrenic disorders were included in this study; 55 subjects had presented an episode of suicide attempt (15 had a recent suicide attempters and 40 had a lifetime suicide attempters) and 71 patients without any suicidal behavior
The predominant type of schizophrenia was undifferentiated for patients without suicide attempt (47.88%) and paranoid for patients with suicide attempt (45.44%).The majority of the prescribed Antipsychotic Drugs are typical (83.1%)

Summary

Introduction

There have been many studies on psychiatric disorders, but very little is known about the biology of suicide with schizophrenia. We are looking for a possible connection between altered lipid profile and suicidal behavior in schizophrenic Tunisian patients. Mensi et al Ann Gen Psychiatry (2016) 15:36 deregulation, especially altered lipid profile including low total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoproteins-cholesterol (LDL-c) levels, may underlie higher suicide risk in patients with schizophrenia [1, 3]. A number of studies have investigated a possible link between low serum cholesterol and psychiatric symptoms, especially suicidal behavior [36]. These findings might be explained by the hypothesis that reduced cholesterol level contributes to decreased serotonergic transmission due to altered affinity and function of serotonin receptors and transporters [8]. Cholesterol has received attention as a potentially meaningful biomarker for suicide

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Results